Mirren scoops film award

Helen Mirren helped ensure the Brits did not return empty-handed from the US when she picked up an award from America's film critics.

Mirren was named best supporting actress for her role in Robert Altman's film, Gosford Park, a satirical murder mystery set in a British country house in the Thirties, by the National Society of Film Critics. Altman himself took best director and the film's writer, Julian Fellowes, won the best screenplay prize.

The British actress arrived at the ceremony, at Sardi's Restaurant in Manhattan, in bright red, accompanied by her husband, director Taylor Hackford.

David Lynch's dark, dreamlike Mulholland Drive was named best picture of 2001 by the group of 52 newspaper and magazine film critics. Gosford Park came second in the best picture voting, while The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was placed third.

Gosford Park was chosen as the premiere of the last London Film Festival, sponsored by the Evening Standard. Mirren was not the only Briton to come home with an award this weekend: cinematographer Roger Deakins was named by the American Film Institute as best cinematographer for his work on the Coen brothers' The Man Who Wasn't There at a ceremony in Los Angeles.

At the same event, Christopher Nolan won screenwriter of the year for his film, Memento, about a man who lost his memory.